Buenos Aires is the place where I fully unpacked my bag as I spent six nights there after Iguazu falls and another final night in Saturday 17th December. I write this post from Buenos Aires EZE airport… bye South America sob!
Buenos Aires is a lively metropolis with gourmet cuisine (second only to Peruvian cuisine in S. America in my opinion!), plenty of shopping, European architecture and Spanish-style late night hours. It is normal to be at a bar or restaurant at midnight and see a toddler out more awake than you. My mum noted Argentians love to indulge their kids and don’t allow them to miss out on the fun. This is the way my parents used to do things in London where as a small child I would often hang out with the grown-ups at parties until I fell asleep in a corner.
Sightseeing
For my first longer stint in BA, we stayed in between Recoleta and Retiro which are fancy neighbourhoods – perhaps the London equivalent is St James, Chelsea or Mayfair. We were close to one of the major sights, the Recoleta cemetery with a large RIP (requiescant in peace) sign marking the entrance. This city of the dead was eerie but beautiful in the sunshine. I found the ornate shadows on the lanes particularly striking.
We walked through lines of statues and marble mausoleums, some of which were like miniature churches. Some of the crypts had dusty coffins and broken glass inside whilst others were gleaming and well maintained.
Many of Argentina’s most rich and famous are buried in this cemetery, but Evita (Eva Peron) seemed to the the biggest star. We found her family mausoleum within the maze as a tour guide pointed it out. There was a queue of tourists in front of it and plenty of fresh flowers.
On Sunday we also visited the ‘feria’ (street market) in Plaza Intendente Alvear close to the cemetery. Lots of painting and jewellery stalls and tarot card readers.
Plaza de Mayo is main square and the site for the city’s biggest protests. On one side of it is Casa Rosada – from this balcony Evita spoke to throngs of Argentinians.
We also went into the Cabildo museum which had a pretty courtyard with the purple jacaranda flowers that can be seen all over Madrid and a good view of the square.
Puerto Madero is the newest of BA’s 48 official barrios and has a Canary Wharf like waterfront with renovated warehouses, restaurants and a modern bridge called Puente de la Mujer. The shape is meant to represent a tango dancing couple!
La Boca is a colourful area that has quite a grungy feel. El Caminito is the most famous street for tourists and there are plenty of ladies there asking us if we would like to be dressed up as tango dancers for a photo. In the 19th century, Spanish and Italian immigrants lived in this area that developed as a meat packing district – after painting shipping barges, leftover paint was used on their own metal corrugated homes… so the story goes.
The Fundacion Proa is a modern white walled art museum in Boca that is like a mini Tate modern with a great terrace cafe. Boca Juniors is the famous football team in the area which has a fierce rivalry with River Plate.
San Telmo is not far from Plaza de Mayo and has a good food market and plenty of antique shops to browse including plenty of pricier “do not touch” places.
Shopping
Palermo was the best area for browsing and seeing a mix of posh and hipster stores. I am always fascinated by how there is a similar hipster area in most cities – very short shorts, beards, classic adidas trainers, retro glassses and so on.
My mum and I went to a few other shopping areas but our favoured place to actually spend was cheap and cheerful Florida, a pedestrian street in town filled with high street shops. La Merceria and Rapsodia were two pretty shops good for jewellery and accessories.
Food and drink
Of course I ate and drank a lot in Buenos Aires. A few of the many food highlights:
Ice cream – Lucciano’s in Palermo for great ice cream, loud music, and pretty setting with indoor swings. Freddo’s ice cream chain everywhere also had excellent gelato!
Basa Basement Bar in Retiro – My mum and I went here on a relatively quiet end-of-bank-holiday-weekend evening but could still appreciate the good pasta and tapas including chilli and coriander sweetcorn. Plus there is a beautiful colourful bar.
Gran Bar Danzon in Retiro – One of my favourite places that we went to for a welcome dinner for my husband and last night of my mum’s trip. Exposed brickwork, modern english films playing on a projector in black and white, good music, great wine by the glass selection and tasting flights! Mexican inspired sushi, risotto, prawns and chocolate fondant were all good.
Don Julio in Palermo – Buzzing atmosphere and incredibly attentive service in this traditional steakhouse which offered good fish, prawns and sides as well as just steak! Plenty of chimichurri sauce (parsley, garlic, chilli, oil, oregano and vinegar) and Malbec of course…
i Central Market in Puerto Madero – Fresh and light (for a change!) lunch of grilled fish with quinoa and chicken salad. However, very slow service!
Burger Joint in Palermo – Cheap and delicious dinner…burgers with great blue cheese and mexican flavours plus good beers and red wine by the glass!
Gran Dabbang – Small tapas place that is a fusion of Indian, Thai, Middle Eastern and South American dishes with a small menu. My husband and I went on our last night in Buenos Aires and I strongly recommend this place. To explain a couple of the dishes given we ate everything on the menu: spicy sweetcorn bread with cheese, coriander and mango chutney, roasted aubergine with spices, Indian style lamb curry with rotis. Eclectic food that was brilliant with a cold bottle of Torrontes wine! We ate too fast for any pictures of the food I am afraid.
Street art
By this point, I had seen a lot of street art in South America and had been on an excellent tour in Bogota – see my Bogota post for more on that. I wanted my husband to have some of the street art experience and his colleague had recommended graffitimundo.com to us. I love it when I learn about the social and political context whilst walking through the city and although this tour was much more expensive than the one in Colombia, it did deliver.
Notably the street art scene in BA emanated from the middle classes and has been more collaborative than territorial. When the Argentinan peso was pegged 1 for 1, the Buenos Aires middle class were able to travel abroad and see the street art in US and Europe. The scene really started in BA after the 2001 crisis when the peso revalued and Argentina defaulted on its debt. One artist called Gualicho painted fantastical graphic design characters which aimed to take people’s mind off unemployment and poverty.
Fukuro noodle bar in Palermo commissioned a street artist Malatesta to paint their facade. I really liked the pastel three layer design of block colours, geometric prints and stencils of various Asian imagery. The noodle shop became so busy that the shop across the street (picture on the right below) got their facade painted too!
Tango
We all know Tango is BIG in Buenos Aires. We went to a excellent upmarket show at Cafe de los Angelitos in a traditional ornate theatre. The dancing was incredible (makes me realise what the Strictly Come Dancing judges mean when they talk about strong Argentinian tango), the live musicians were visible throughout and the costumes were beautiful.
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